You Can’t Take the Sky From Me
I have been thinking a lot about this blog and this site and all of the decisions and moves that have been made over the course of the last couple weeks. I have decided to be defiant. But to me defiance does not mean leaving. It means adapting and doing what I can to survive and help others survive too.
So I have been thinking about what it means to protest censorship. About how to engage productively in my frustration. About reconciling continuing to give traffic and an active user number to a system that has toggled the switch from freedom to oppression. About what it means to be an activist while also staying put. About how we fight for our freedom WITHIN oppression.
Oppression is called many different things. Some people call it “majority rules” others call it “keeping our kids safe.” Tumblr called it “ the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.” Our histories and societies are riddled with “the ends justify the means.” With stifling freedom of expression in an attempt to create freedom of expression. With shutting down deviants to create a utopian society for the “right” people. This is simply another example of people in power using systems to force deviance into comfortability. Utopia is a myth that people attempt to build on the backs and bodies of those who don’t fit in.Â
If you’ve ever seen the movie Serenity, then you know that attempt to make a Utopian society didn’t go so well for the people on Miranda. Popular culture is a reflection of the society in which it was created, and Miranda is an allegory for the ways in which humanity continually tries to create a utopia. It doesn’t work. Not in movies, television, books and more importantly not in history. The holocaust was an attempt to make a “better” society. The trail of tears was an attempt at making a “better” society. History is riddled with death and destruction in the name of more comfort for the people who “matter.” Well fuck that. Every single one of you deviant fuckers MATTERS.Â
To be clear while I am being slightly hyperbolic about Tumblr being like the holocaust (perspective ya’ll), oppression is oppression and no matter the level it is WRONG, and Tumblr’s new policies do force people (particularly sex workers) into unsafe spaces and places.
So why not just leave? Why not flee this oppressive space?
There are oppressive systems everywhere. People trying to make us deny parts of ourselves so that we fit into their idea of the “right” kind of people. We adapt to survive them all the time, and we find ways to be defiant within unfair structures all the time. Sometimes we protest and fight back by leaving, and sometimes we fight back by staying. And sometimes, it’s a privilege to be able to fight back at all. What about those who cannot go anywhere else? Who have never been able to share NSFW content, or who rely on this place for the only community that really understands? Who have and need this place for survival? When there is no real, viable alternative, where do you go that keeps you connected? And who says that adapting within a system to continue to survive is not activism? We need people pushing from the outside AND the inside. Being unapologetic about who we are and adapting creatively to continue to be that in the face of oppression IS an act of defiance. Being here for each other, with love in the face of fear.
This, all of this, is just another example of systemic oppression, and my way of fighting is sticking with my community in all the ways I can, until there is one way that we all can leave. Together. I am choosing to adapt, because I will not give up the people in the name of protest. I am choosing to adapt because adaptation IS my activism. I am an activist, and my activism always comes down to the people and how I can work within a system to connect with and support my community. And THIS is my community. I will find ways to survive and support others in surviving, until something develops that offers a better solution than the ones we have. It has been two weeks. Change takes time, perseverance and patience and acts of defiance.Â
I’ll be shifting my blog in the next few days. I will not be posting much because I’ll be spending time rebuilding and figuring out what this blog is going to become, and how my adaptation can be an enaction of defiance and activism.Â
I don’t know how it’s gonna work, but I know I’m going to do my best to find photos that fit the guidelines but are dirty as fuck. I am going to keep writing erotica and using my words to be dirty in the face of this puritanical shift. I am not going to let them make me a prude with their systems and rules and censorship. I’m dirty and deviant, and I’m going to try to use that to beat them at their own game.Â
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